She's got them wrapped around her finger

Female wrestler pins her hopes on winning over doubters

Lockport Township's Haley Augello is like most other high school freshman girls. Well, sort of.

While makeup, hair care and trips to the mall to buy clothes are priorities, Augello also happens to be a starter at 103 pounds on the Porters' highly regarded varsity wrestling team.

"My friends don't think there's anything weird about it," said Augello, who began wrestling when she was 8 years old. "Once I'm on the mat, I'm not a girly girl. I'm a wrestler."

She almost didn't get that chance.

Her desire to join her younger brother, Sean, at wrestling practice was rebuffed by her parents for the better part of a year. Once they relented, Haley was tutored by her father, Larry, a longtime coach with the Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation who wrestled in college at Carthage.

What he and others discovered was that Haley was good. Very good.

Despite her knack for the sport, Augello's participation still hasn't been easy on another interested party: her mother, Wendy.

"There was a lot of hesitancy, mostly from me, because obviously, as a mom, I've always wanted to protect her," Wendy Augello said. "Now it's more emotionally exhausting for me than her. Some of the things I hear in the stands, mostly from other parents, aren't very nice. But she's earned respect from most of the die-hards."

While she admits that she isn't quite "one of the gang," the respect factor is there from her teammates as well. She had to earn her place in the lineup and has acquitted herself very well, going 12-19 against a top-flight schedule.

"It doesn't faze us that she's a girl, because her wrestling speaks for itself," said Lockport junior Jameson Oster, the defending Class 3A 119-pound state champion. "We don't exclude her from anything. Not all freshmen start on varsity, especially on a team like ours."

Foremost among Augello's immediate goals is protecting her spot in the lineup. But she doesn't shy away from her inevitable role as a trailblazer.

"There are a lot of girls out there who think that they can't do this," Augello said. "But I'm proof that it can be done."

-----------

ON THE WEB: Check out video of Haley Augello at wrestling practice at chicagotribune.com/prepsplus